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March 27, 2011

I like this time of year. It harkens back to Medieval times in that the days are marked with saint's days and liturgical seasons. Starting with St. Valentine's, Ash Wednesday, St. Patrick's Day and St. Joseph's day, in this part of the country, anyway, all these days are observed. It all culminates with the Easter Triduum and, in Western New York, a Polish festival day called Dyngus Day. There is also a secular observance on March 14th which I celebrated for the first time.

The new holiday is Pi Day - 3.14. Linda of Raveloe (that sounds vaguely Medieval, doesn't it?) invited a group to come to her shop and enjoy pie and discuss the mathematical wonder that is Elizabeth Zimmerman's Pi Shawl. We had a lovely evening eating pizza pie and a variety of dessert pies. A few daring members of the group endeavored to sit in a circle and all knit on the same circular shawl at the same time. There were six knitters using circular needles and separate balls of yarn. We discovered that it can be done. Practice will make the process easier, but our experiment was very satisfactory.

A week ago Saturday was Cousin Bridget's fabulous corned beef and cabbage feast. The day after that was the St. Patrick's day parade in Buffalo. Bridget and I made a day of it. We parked our folding chairs on the corner of Delaware and Chippewa Street and enjoyed watching the parade and the parade go-ers.

There is a considerable amount of imbibing as a traditional element of this particular parade. This year was no exception. As the day wore on, it sort of devolved into a drunken brawl. Walking back to the car, Cousin bridget had to grab me by the collar and drag me away when I turned into a rubber-necker when a rumble started across the street from us. We did, however catch sight of a tree which only blooms during this parade:

Starting last Tuesday, I have the dubious honor of hosting my daughter's two dogs while she and her family spend a week in sunny climes. That brings the canine count around here to three. This is the legal limit in my community. That is, I have discovered, a good rule. My life has been letting dogs in and out and in and out. Today I took a picture of the three amigos. When I posted it on facebook I gave it the caption "There is not enough Febreeze in the world to make this couch smell normal again."

On Friday, after the obligatory Lenten fish fry, I went to a lecture by Edwidge Danticat. She is the author of Crik, Crack! among other books. Ms. Danticat is Haitian and much of her lecture was directly related to her background. She was very charming and likable. She is an alumna of Barnard College, as is my own sweet daughter. I brought my knitting with me and enjoyed the event completely.

Today I went to the opening of an art exhibit at the Castellani Art gallery on the campus. The exhibit was devoted to the art of Alice Bak. I knew Alice and always enjoyed her work. She worked very hard to preserve the Polish traditions and folk art in the community. The organizers expected about fifty people to attend the event and were thrilled to have over 200 people show up. Alice was a humble person in the very best sense of that word. She would have been delighted to see such a crowd. I particularly loved the Easter table that was set up with the pysanky eggs and traditional centerpieces. I feel very inspired to have a similar display in my own house. I also loved the sweet embroidery motifs on the tablecloths.

There is a tradition of paper-cutting in Polish folk art. Alice would consider a Polish proverb and create a beautiful papercut to illustrate it. After the show, there was the nicest dinner you can imagine hosted by Bridget and her mother Patricia. it was a Polish menu with pierogie and breaded porkchops. Delicious beyond words. So... That is what my early spring has been like. Busy and interesting.

September 18, 2010

What a nice day! My mother, my aunt, my cousin and I went to the Niagara Celtic Festival in Olcott New York. Olcott is on Lake Ontario. I don't travel the 20-or-so minutes it takes to get to the lake very often, so I am always surprised by what a huge expanse of water it is. This is a relevant observation because the day began with the arrival of Bonnie Prince Charles. I am always thrilled to see a tall ship.

I love the bagpipes and the marching bands were a lot of fun to watch. We managed to snag a perfect place to watch the proceedings - a picnic table under an oak tree. I brought my spinning wheel and a number of cute little kids stopped to watch me. Honestly, though, I was by far not the most eccentric person there. It was kind of fun to be at an event that was essentially a come-as-you-are party. As it happens there are a number of men out there just itching to put on kilts and go somewhere. Some of those men participated in Highland games. My favorite is the caber toss. There was a man on a loudspeaker who did a good job describing the rules and scoring system for the various events along with a little history of the origins of each event.

This little man knew he looked good. He made my day:

When I got home from the festival, I took my favorite-little-boy-in-the-world and the-sweetest-little-girl-I-know to their swimming lessons. I have no pictures, which is just as well because the internet is not ready for a picture of me in a swimsuit.

August 01, 2010

July was a beutiful month around here. It must have been wearing roller skates because it went by in a flash. I did manage to capture a few images. One of the activities I've done involve wading pools. I had been taking the children to a local pool until an unsavory event occurred. After library story hour, we proceeded to a park. Swimming in the wading pool had been cancelled for the morning in favor of what was billed as the Goldfish Derby. Buckets of little fish had been dumped into the pool and the children were given cups with which to catch some fish to take home. When the event was over, there were a number of fish left. No problem, in the view of the park workers. They drained the pool and used push brooms and power washers to push the poor little fish down the drain. We don't go there any more.

On a happier note, a number ofthe knitters I hang around with on Wednesday nights went to Shakespeare in the Park. This is theatrical group has been putting on productions in Delaware Park in Buffalo for the past 35 years. The current play is MacBeth. The twist is that all of the cast members are female. It was a real treat. Together our group "knit the ravelled sleeve" and truly enjoyed the Scottish play.

Yesterday was another great day. I went to New York State's Amish country. The weather could not have been more perfect.

The Amish live in Leon, Cherry Creek and Randolph, NY about an hour and a half from me. It was a pleasant drive and we had a great time buying the goods for sale. The way it works is that you pick up a map of the area from one of the local stores and then drive to the different homes to shop. Families specialize in weaving rugs, basketry, furniture making, quilts etc. Our group boosted the economy very nicely. We ended our day with a stop at a cheese factory.

These bird houses are made from gourds. The shape and height are intended to attract purple martins, which eat tons of mosquitos. The small stacks of grain in the background are oats. They are cut and put into these sheaves and dried on the ground for two weeks. The oats are then used to feed the hourses for the winter months.

This is a workshop of a family that specializes in weaving rugs. I had a nice conversation with the lady who was in the shop. As she knotted the fringe on a newly-woven rug she described the materials she used and the patterns she enjoyed weaving. I told her about my rigid heddle. "One heddle?" She smirked, and tried not to laugh. I have officially been mocked by an Amish woman.

We had the nicest picnic you could image. (Picture individual blueberry pies, for instance) We foung the loveliest spot near a garden and enjoyed the birdsong and breezes the day had to offer. Hope you had a nice July, too.

December 12, 2009

I had a wonderful time tonight at a concert which featured holiday music. Endymion is an ensemble of five women. They played Celtic and English traditional music using their own arrangements. It was the most pleasant musical event I've been to for as long as I can remember.

In other holiday news... I keep plugging along putting up decorations. I'd estimate that I'm 2/3's done. It's been kind of a treat because I'm using ornaments I haven't seen since we moved to this house five or so years ago. I'd forgotten many of them.

November 06, 2009

I've heard other people lament that they have trouble finishing projects. Oddly, my projects come to a screeching halt when it comes to putting on the buttons. Generally a 10 - 15 minute job. I can't even remember when I finished this Elizabeth Zimmerman February JAcket from her masterpiece Knitters Almanac. Last night I finally put on some lovely mother of pearl buttons. I vaguely remember buying the buttons an an estate sale a fairly long time age. They are pristine and look great on the sweater.

This picture is so blurry it might be Bigfoot, but it is not. It is a pair of cashmere-lined mittens. I modified the Betz White pattern from Warm Fuzzies. Essentially what I do is make two complete pairs of mitts and use one pair as lining. It's not as fiddly as you might think. The cashmere is so soft it makes your eyes roll back in your head when you put them on. The patterned part is from a thrift store sweater. That modest size medium sweater yielded two large matryoshka dolls and a pair of mittens. Not shabby for a $2.98 purchase.

August 30, 2009

I made the journey to Buffalo for the 10th Anniversary of the Elmwood Festival of the Arts earlier today. The website for it was tinged with apathy, I thought. I say that because the opening line was "We are as excited as we have ever been". Hmmm...

Being the Summer of 2009, the sky was threatening to open up, and it did acouple of times with cold sprinkles. The festival was really well organized and had a decent variety of handmade items. Not many folks were buying things, though. Wonderful Linda of Raveloe Fibers had a beautiful booth selling her wares.

A am an Easily Annoyed Person. Today I was annoyed by people who bring dogs to street festivals. Here are some updates from the big book of facts - dogs don't like street festivals. In addition, not too many people like to be inflicted with the rope burns which result when a dog's leash winds around thier leg. No one likes to get the "oh, you must be a dog-hater" glare after they have stumbled over a terrier on an eight foot long leash.

The other thing that annoyed me was getting elbowed in the head (twice!) by some dope who was walking and talking on his cell phone. When I turned to see who had assaulted my poor noggin, I was rewarded with him giving me an annoyed look for getting in the way of his elbow.

I did not allow myself to be annoyed by all of the strollers, although some of the occupants had their permanent teeth coming in.

June 07, 2009

Yesterday my mother, aunt and cousin went to mass at Fatima Shrine. It seemed like a good idea in the planning stages, but it ended up being a rough experience.

The Shrine commemorates the appearance of the Blessed Mother to three Portuguese peasant children in 1917. During a series of visits, the Blessed Mother revealed three secrets to the children and implored the faithful to pray the rosary every day.

Anyhoo, the Shrine has gotten mighty shabby since the last time I went. It's under construction to improve it, but in the meantime it's a very uncomfortable place. It was hovering around 90 degrees in the church and we were tempted to leave, but we made it through the mass. We then proceed to the gift shop where the lady in charge told us that she was closing. I kind of begged my way in because my aunt really wanted to stock up on green scapulars to hand out to people in need. I can't figure out why the store couldn't stay open a little later, especially considering that half a dozen people who were leaving mass were turned away from the store. If only I were in charge of the world!

I rounded out my weekend with a lot of deep cleaning. I rolled up all of the area rugs because I'm tired of being held hostage to Little Frida's unreliable bladder. This old quilt needed to be washed. As I took it out of the washing machine I remembered that I had considered line drying some of my laundry this summer. I love the smell and and the texture of line-dried fabric, so it's a resolution I think I can keep.

March 13, 2009

I just got home from an amazing performance by the Chinese National Acrobats. It was about 90 minutes of tumbling, juggling and contortionist. Along with watching 14 people spin around on one bicycle, I really enjoyed the man who tossed and spun a huge urn.

*rant alert* There were tons of kids in the audience. They were enthralled and you didn't hear a peep from them. Lucky, lucky me. I had some goofballs in the row directly behind me waddle in twenty minutes late, loudly grumbling how hard it is to find a spot to park. The perfume-soaked hag behind me leaned over to us and demanded that we give a full description of the acts they had missed. I managed to hiss "You haven't missed much - I'm sure they saved the best for last." Then a couple with the group decided it was their job to provide a running commentary on everything they were watching on the stage. After a bit I turned around and said in a pleading voice, "Please, please stop talking." After rolling their eyes they did finally stop the chit-chat. Honest-to-God, I really don't think I'm overly demanding to expect a little audience etiquette. Am I?

October 17, 2008

Last night I had the privilege of attending a Distinguished Speaker lecture at he University at Buffalo. The guest was Khaled Hosseini, the author of the Kite Runner. He is a powerful speaker and had a lot of insights into the situation in Afghanistan. The Alumni Arena is a large venue and it was about two-thirds full. Dr. Hosseini mentioned that he had never spoken to such a large group. The University had handed out 5,000 copies of the Kite Runner to the student body, so a good number of students attended.

My biggest surprise of the evening was when the author told us that the book took a year to write, most of it composed in the early morning as Dr. Hosseini was a practicing physician at the time. After he completed the manuscript he needed an agent. He sent it tothirty agents. It was rejected by twenty-nine.

As an aside, at one point during the lecture, I looked over to the rows of spectators below me which were, for the most part high school and university students. About three-quarters of these young people were busy texting through the whole lecture. They all had those elaborate phones with the keyboards. The screens were bright enough to be a distraction in the darkened arena. I don't even know what to think. Speaking to people in my age cohort, we have come to the realization that this behavior is not considered to be rude. I'm not sure I will be able to adjust to this.

September 22, 2008

Tonight my husband and I attended a Meet the Author event sponsored by the local National Public Radio affiliate, WBFO. I really enjoyed the hour-long chat with the author, Ginger Stroud. I've been to a few tapings of radio shows and I've always found it fascinating. I've even seen the live performance of my favorite radio program, Prarie Home Companion a couple of times. Anyhoo... after tonight's lecture I bought the book and just skimming through it, I know I will enjoy reading it. I really like having books signed by the author.

Another thing I'm enjoying lately is Netflix. Saturday night (a particularly dismal night tv schedule-wise) I treated myself to the movie Miss Potter. I really love all things Beatrix Potter and hope to go to England's Lake District some day. The movie was good, but there are at least twenty actresses I would have preferred over Renee Zelwiger in the title role. For some reason, I find her hard to watch.